Transcriber's Notes:
1. Page scan source: Google Books
https://books.google.com/books?id=oCQNAAAAYAAJ
(Harvard College)
2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe].
THE HISPANIOLA PLATE.
The Hispaniola Plate.
(1683-1893)
BY
JOHN BLOUNDELLE-BURTON
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"We passed the tropics, as near as we could guess, just where the
famous Sir William Phips fished up the silver from the Spanish Plate
wreck."--DEFOE ("Colonel Jack").
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NEW YORK
THE CASSELL PUBLISHING CO.
31 Union Square, North
Copyright, 1895, by
THE CASSELL PUBLISHING CO.
_All rights reserved_.
To those
OFFICERS OF THE ROYAL NAVY
WITH WHOM I HAVE, FOR SOME YEARS,
SPENT MANY PLEASANT WEEKS ANNUALLY DURING THE
NAVAL MAN[OE]UVRES,
WHILE ACTING AS SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF
_THE STANDARD_,
I VENTURE TO INSCRIBE,
WITH GREAT CORDIALITY, THIS STORY--
PARTLY TRUE AND PARTLY FICTITIOUS--OF
Captain, Sir William Phips, R.N.,
And of
Lieutenants Nicholas and Reginald Crafer, R.N.
PREFACE.
Most of the maps of the West Indies published during the first half of
the present century and anterior to that date mark distinctly the spot
where the following story principally takes place. Thirty miles due
north of Cape Français, on the north coast of San Domingo, is a reef
entitled "Bajo de la Plata, or Phips's Plate," while more modern maps
simply describe it as "Silver Bank."
This is, of course, the spot where Sir William Phips--a now forgotten
figure in history--obtained the plate mentioned by Defoe; and, so far
as I am aware, there is but one detailed account in existence of how
he found and secured that plate. This account is contained in a
duodecimo volume entitled "_Pietas in Patriam_: the Life of Sir
William Phips," published in London in 1697 anonymously, but
guaranteed as accurate by several people who knew him. A production
entitled "The Library of American Biography," edited by one Jared
Sparks, also professes to give an accurate biography of Phips, but it
is simply a garbled and mangled copy of the London publication. I
should also mention that the "Biographia Britannica" refers to the
expedition in the article on "Christopher Monk, second Duke of
Albemarle." So does a work of the last century entitled "The Lives of
the Admirals," by Lawrence Echard, and so also do some encyclopædias;
but all of them undoubtedly derive their information from "_Pietas in
Patriam_."
This work I have myself carefully followed, because in it alone are to
be found the descriptions of the "Frygate Algier Rose," her eighteen
guns and ninety-five men, of the various mutinies, of Alderly's
arrival on the scene, of the second voyage with the tender, and so
forth. Indeed, beyond the requirements of fiction the account is
absolutely an account of what happened until the chase after Alderly
by Nicholas Crafer, when fiction itself becomes predominant. Alderly,
I should add, was as real a character as Phips himself. So was the
carpenter who discovered the second mutiny. The rest, with the
exception of the Duke of Albemarle, are imaginary.
I may add, in conclusion, that "The Hispaniola Plate" appeared
originally in _The St. James's Budget_.
A NEW NOVELIST.
Nothing is more notable in recent literature than the sudden renewal
of interest in the historical novel. Mr. Stanley Weyman is the most
successful of this group of younger writers, but there is now treading
on his heels another young novelist, whose work shows such splendid
promise as well as such remarkable achievement, that he bids fair to
outstrip Mr. Weyman and come first to the goal. This is Mr. John
Bloundelle-Burton, whose story, "The Desert Ship," created such a stir
in London a short time ago.
Mr. Burton was born in 1850. His parents intended him for a military
life, but when at twenty-one he came into a comfortable inheritance,
he determined to see something of the world. Already familiar with the
Continent, he turned to fresher pastures and came to Canada; then
running over the border into the "States," he lived down South for a
considerable period. In Baltimore he first contracted the writing
habit, sending an article to a paper there, which accepted it with
thanks, but with nothing else. While down South he fell in with "Red
Cloud," an Indian chief, picking up much information that was strange
and new, and that was later to be utilized in "The Desert Ship." Going
back to England, he flitted between London and Paris, the latter being
his favorite abode. In the Place de la Madeleine he lived with a
company that contained representatives of every class and country.
Describing them Mr. Bloundelle-Burton says: "One of our number was a
Scotch duke; another a tailor's son, enormously rich and not a bad
fellow; another a Spahi, home on leave from Africa; a fourth a
Spaniard, rolling in money; another an American, who afterward died in
prison while awaiting his trial for killing--absolutely killing--a man
in a duel. They could not get over that in Paris; indeed, as a
Frenchman said to me, it really looked as if the American had fully
intended to murder his countryman."
Living in this way in Paris, our author began to write more and more;
first for foreign papers, then for English ones. He began a connection
with Galignani, which lasted intermittently for a long interval, and
brought him acquaintance with many notable men, among them Jules
Grévy, several years later President of the Republic. His next venture
was sending English papers news from different popular resorts on the
Continent--Switzerland and the Tyrol, Italy and the Riviera. Later on
he helped edit a paper called _The American Visitor_, which told rich
Americans where they could spend their money most rapidly, and where
they had the best opportunity for catching a glimpse of fashionable
society in England and on the Continent.
Mr. Burton's first long story was "The Silent Shore," which had quite
a career under several different guises. Originally published in
volume form, it later appeared as a play at the Olympic Theater, then
ran as a serial in Spanish in a South American paper, and ended up as
a serial in several English provincial papers. His next story was,
"His Own Enemy," in the author's opinion, the best novel he has yet
produced, "though not, I hope, the best I shall write," he adds.
"The Desert Ship," Mr. Burton's next book and the first to bring him
genuine fame, was published by Hutchinson & Co., in London. It was
received with a burst of praise from the critics, even Mr.
Labouchere's sarcastic and hard-to-please paper, _Truth_, declaring it
to be "an enthralling story and a book which will mark a period in the
existence of anyone who is fortunate enough to get it. It is," the
paper added, "as exciting as anything Verne ever wrote, and with the
reality of Robert Louis Stevenson." Nothing succeeds like success, as
Mr. Burton rapidly learned; editors with orders up their sleeves
dropped in upon the rising young author, and he found it hard to
satisfy all the demands made upon him. All this solicitation for the
work of his pen resulted in a sudden literary output. Two stories
appeared in quick succession: "The Gentleman Adventurer," which ran in
_Young England_, and "The Adventures of Viscount Annerly," which was
published in the _People_.
"The Hispaniola Plate," Mr. Burton's last and strongest book, is a
semi-historical story. The scene is laid in the West Indies. The two
principal characters belong to the Royal Navy, one living in
Cromwell's, Charles II.'s and James II.'s reigns, the other in the
present day; and the way in which the two periods are blended into the
one book exhibits masterly skill. Mr. Burton is a passionate lover of
the sea. Descended from a line of ancestors that acquired fame in the
British Navy--his grandfather, Lieutenant Jermy, was a noted old
commander of English ships and participated in the battle of New
Orleans in 1814--he has in his blood a taste for the salt sea wave,
and this gives his stories their breezy, out-of-door atmosphere.
Mr. Burton has a pleasant home just out of London at Barnes Common.
Like so many other Englishmen of prominence in these days, he is
married to an American woman. He is a large, broad-chested man,
standing six feet, two inches and a quarter, in his shoes, with dark,
piercing eyes. Mr. Burton has decided views about the true methods for
literary work. He does not believe in fixing on a good subject for a
novel, then selecting a picturesque period, and, after making yourself
thoroughly acquainted with the manners and customs of that epoch,
planting your characters in it, as is the habit of certain novelists.
The story must come to you, you cannot go out and bring it in. "I
never think," he says, "of producing a story laid in a period (or
about persons) which I have to read up--to 'mug' up, as we used to say
at school. But I have been an ardent reader of history and memoirs all
my life, and the story arises naturally from periods and incidents
with which I am well acquainted."
"I mean," he adds, "that the story should fit into an intimate
acquaintance with the _mise-en-scène_, not that the _mise-en-scène_
should be hunted up to fit the story."
No one who reads this exciting story, "The Hispaniola Plate," and who
is held captive by its vivid scenes, its deep, rich coloring, its
overmastering air of reality, but will wish long life to this strong
and original talent, which already has behind it such remarkable
achievement. May we have many such books from his pen!
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Nicholas Crafer's Strange Will